Laravel vs Yii - Which is Ideal for Web Development in 2024

What functions do websites have? Have you ever considered it or wished you knew more about it? What happens in the background while you utilize "the user interface." Well, the more you know, the better it works in the tech world! For more information on backend development, see CodeIgniter, Phalcon, Zend, Symfony, CakePHP, Laravel, and Yii, among many other frameworks. The next post will assist you in changing how you view the PHP development environment and will provide a thorough comparison of YII vs Laravel for web apps.

One of the most popularly named back-end programming languages for creating web solutions in 2022 will still be PHP. This language provides a wide scope of tools for the efficient creation of the web and is quick, simple, and flexible. That must be the reason that PHP is used to build 79 percent of all websites. Laravel, Symfony, Yii, and other PHP frameworks are available for building sophisticated web applications and accelerating the development process. In a recent article, we compared the Laravel and Symfony frameworks and discussed which one to pick for various project types. We'll compare the Laravel and Yii frameworks in this article to help you decide which to choose for your web development projects.

Laravel and Yii: Popularity Among Industries

The two open-source PHP frameworks for web applications that use the model-view-controller (MVC) development pattern are Laravel and Yii. Both drastically lessen the development process's pain and accelerate it. However, there are some distinctions between their approaches to development.

Laravel provides web designers with their own approach to development that uses minimal coding and clear, expressive vocabulary. Additionally, this strong architecture enables the creation and addition of the most sophisticated features to the generated solutions while giving software developers a great deal of creative freedom. Due to its ability to create web apps of any complexity and with a variety of features, Laravel is preferred by many businesses. Top 10K Sites, Top 1M Sites, Top 100K Sites, and The Entire Web all use Laravel as a prominent framework.

Yii can brag about its straightforward data processing and quick development thanks to a wide range of pre-built capabilities. It is frequently used to create web apps with less need for business logic or with rapid, standardized solutions. The following sectors utilize Laravel and Yii to create web applications, according to Similar Tech reports:

Laravel

• Computer Electronics and Technology 

• Business and customer services  

• Travel and Tourism 

• Food and Drink 

• News and Media

Yii 

• Science and Education

• Law and Government

• Health

• E-commerce and Shopping

• Arts and Entertainment

  
  

An Overview of Laravel

One of the most widely utilized PHP frameworks right now is Laravel, which was updated in June 2021 to version 8.5.20. Laravel is used in web development projects by 67 percent of all PHP developers, according to JetBrains. It offers a robust toolkit and great development skills to web developers. Among PHP frameworks, the following characteristics make Laravel a top choice for web development:

• A command-line tool called Artisan enables the automation of repetitive operations, the rapid creation of models and controllers, the configuration of development tasks, and the execution of numerous development commands;

  
  

• Web developers can easily and successfully interface with the databases of built apps using Eloquent, an Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) system; in addition to using the default Eloquent ORM, software developers can easily connect their Laravel projects with additional ORM systems, such as Doctrine 2;

  
  

• Comprehensive Database Support — Laravel helps web developers to easily integrate, run, and migrate databases including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and SQL Server;

  
  

• It compiles and caches views before updating them, resulting in zero overloads to the constructed app; Blade Template Engine is a sophisticated templating engine that makes working with the View layer in MVC design straightforward and pleasurable;

  
  

• PHP - Unit offers integrated unit testing for the created applications;

  
  

• Libraries — Laravel has more than 15,000 packages with a range of functions that make work with routes, controllers, views, customizing, etc. easier;

  
  

• The Laravel Service Container is a practical container that keeps all the bindings necessary for a smooth app's operation together; programmers can quickly configure all the class dependencies and services with the service container and carry out quick dependency injections throughout the development process;

  
  

• Laravel Homestead is a virtual development environment that lets web developers start creating web applications without spending a lot of time setting up their infrastructure by automatically installing and configuring web servers and server-related software on their computers;

  
  

• Laravel Valet - a Laravel development environment for Mac users that also supports Symfony, Slim, Zend, CakePHP 3, and WordPress;

  
  

• Powerful Security Features - web developers using Laravel may create and use a variety of security features and techniques, such as authentication, authorization,  password resets, encryption, email verification, hashing, protection against SQL injection and CSPF attacks, among others;

  
  

• Extensive Documentation - Laravel has comprehensive documentation that is complemented by a video tutorial library called Laracast that contains more than 1500 videos on how to use the framework. In addition, Laravel.io has a strong community of 45,000 users who are prepared to assist with any new development challenges that Laravel may encounter.

  
  

An Overview of Yii

A high-performance PHP framework called Yii (Yes, It Is!) was introduced in 2008. The framework had already seen a number of updates by 2021, with the most recent being 2.0.43, which debuted in August of that year. The 3d version of Yii is currently a top priority for its designers. The split of the future framework into practical packages is one of the most anticipated features. The packages that Yii developers want to use in their projects can be chosen by them, and they can do updates more frequently. In addition, the 3D version will adhere to PSR standards, improving the quality of the code and its interoperability with outside libraries.

Yii is the fifth-most used PHP framework, according to JetBrains, with 6% of PHP developers using it in their web development projects. The developers of Yii describe it as "a quick, safe, and effective PHP framework. flexible while being practical. Right out of the box, it functions. possesses acceptable defaults. And these are the explanations for why PHP developers favor using this framework while creating web applications:

• A Wide Range of Databases are supported by Yii, including PostgreSQL, MySQL, SQLite, Oracle, and others; web developers can use Yii to connect to Microsoft Business Intelligence and MongoDB;

  
  

• Standardized Techniques and Architecture - Yii Framework implements the MVC design pattern and adheres to industry standards, making it possible to organize code in an understandable and straightforward-to-maintain structure;

  
  

• Composer PHP Dependency Manager - aids web developers in setting up and managing the dependencies and packages necessary for an app to function;

  
  

• Web developers may swiftly build models, forms, modules, CRUD actions, and more with the help of the Gii Extension for Automatic Code Generation, which considerably speeds up the web development process;

  
  

• Support for External Templating Engines—while Yii lacks an internal templating engine, it can be coupled with external template engines like Twig and Smarty;

  
  

• Widgets provided inside Yii allow web developers to reuse certain functionalities to show app material in a variety of ways;

  
  

• Security Features and Methods - Incorporating bcrypt password hashing, encryption, authentication, authorisation, and protection from SQL injection, XSS, and CSRF threats;

  
  

• Yii Skeleton - The Yii framework provides web developers with pre-made application templates for constructing a variety of apps, including those with divided front-end and back-end functionality, base project structures, and others created from scratch.

  
  

• A large Yii community, which includes the developers of the framework core, is willing to share some tips and nuances on how to work with Yii in the most effective way. Well-Written Documentation - Yii offers web developers a variety of online tutorials, and Yii creators provide live support on their framework via Slack.

  
  

When Does It Make Sense Using Yii over Laravel?

Without a question, Laravel is a top PHP web development framework. Many companies favor using Laravel to create their web applications. It has everything needed to develop reliable, secure, tried-and-true, and efficient web solutions for any company operating in any industry. So why do some software developers still go for Yii when working on web development projects?

There are justifications for that. Yii framework offers standardized out-of-the-box capabilities, which can greatly automate the web building process. Its Gii extension enables autonomous code generation. Web developers can quickly create pre-made interfaces with Yii widgets and rearrange them at any time. Yii offers robust theming and skinning features that make it simple to alter the website's design. Yii is frequently utilized in the creation of web applications with admin panels or dashboards because of this.

Due to the presence of advanced caching meaning, Yii has become popular. Yii is therefore great for websites with heavy traffic, such as forums and e-commerce sites. Additionally, Yii's framework outperforms Laravel in terms of performance. As a result, it works well for developing real-time applications like social networking sites, where the efficiency of an app depends on how quickly data is processed.

Laravel vs Yii Framework: Comparison Table

Comparing Factors LaravelYii PHP-based prerequisites

PHP 5.4 or above is required, as well as the PHP JSON and PHP Mcrypt extensions.PHP 5.4 or higher versions

Testing Needs One can test with PHP units or using Symphony parts like DomCrawler and others. Processes can be tested with Codeception and a PHP unit.

Migration Class needs Access to class and data filling tools are necessary for Laravel. Yii needs entry to Migration classes.

ORM- Object Related Mapping Need Doctrine with plugins and Data Access tools Need Doctrine with plugins and Data Access tools

Our Final Thoughts

The correct tech stack must be chosen in order to construct a web application. Laravel and Yii are two examples of the many frameworks that greatly speed up the creation of web applications. Yii works better for developing web applications with high traffic flow, real-time apps, and web applications that contain admin panels or dashboards, whereas Laravel may be used to build a web application of any complexity and for any sort of business.